I recently stumbled upon a Facebook add for an app called Yerdle. I don’t remember what the post said, but it intrigued me enough for me to check it out. A week or so later, it’s basically my new favorite thing.
Yerdle aims to reduce consumption and waste by allowing people to give away their old stuff in exchange for fake dollars, or “Yerdle dollars,” with which they can purchase other items. You do have to pay shipping, so it’s a little more cost-effective if you can find multiple items from one person and ask them to bundle, which most don’t mind doing.
I’ve only gotten a couple items so far. The first giver, for whatever reason, didn’t ship, but Yerdle promptly refunded me. The second was friendly about bundling and shipped me an adorable dress and top, packaged well and in great condition.
What I really love though, is having a way to get rid of my ill-fitting or unwanted clothes, and especially my old Etsy stock, knowing people actually want them. I’ve made a lot of items that I never managed to sell, and was shocked at how quickly they got snatched up.
The negatives for me are that it can take a lot of sifting to find what you want, prices can be wildly inconsistent between givers, and their chosen shipping service, UPS, is much less convenient for me to use than the postal service.
But you can use “wishes” to be notified when something you want is listed. Pricing, of course, is up to the giver, though there is a guideline of one Yerdle dollar to one US dollar. And if you become a pro member – 25 gives and a decent feedback rating – you can ship however you want.
Honestly I would be pretty happy with the service just for the knowledge that my stuff is going somewhere. But if I can get some nice, practically free things for myself? Even better.
So if you have some time and some potentially desirable clutter, and you like bargain shopping, check out yerdle.com or the Yerdle app! And no, they’re not compensating me, I just think it’s pretty great!